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138 



NINTH ANNUAL, REPORT OF THE 



W. Z. HUTCHINSON. 



There is an inference in the query, 

 and it seems to be quite generally be- 

 lieved, that the man who "keeps more 

 bees" must, necessarily, neglect them. 

 Not so. He may not give so much 

 time to each colony as does the man 

 with a few bees, but he gives all of 

 the time that is necessary, with his 

 system of management. In fact, the 

 man with several apiaries, one who is 

 making a sole business of bee-keeping, 

 is much less likely to neglect his bees 

 than the man who has bees mixed 

 with some other busdness. To the man 

 who bestows every possible care on a 

 few colonies of bees, the short-cut 

 methods of extensive bee-keeping ap- 

 pear to be slipshod, while the exten- 

 sive bee-keeper looks upon the plans 

 of the former as fussy. The truth is, 

 that both men may be doing what is 

 best for them. 



As regards intensive versus exten- 

 sive methods, bee-keeping has often 

 been compared to farming or garden- 

 ing, and the illustration is a fair one. 

 Where' land is high in price, as near a 

 large city, the farmer, or gardener^ 

 cani't afford to produce the ordinarsrV, 

 crops, such as hay, com, or potatoes; | 

 he must raise strawberries, or some ^ 

 kind of garden-truck, and he can af- 



ford to use every possible means of 

 securing the greatest possible results 

 from an acre of ground. He can plow 

 and re-plow, and cultivate, and pile 

 on the manure, because the products 

 will sell for a large price, and the land 

 costs so much that it is profitable to 

 use it for producing crops, only by 

 getting the greatest possible returns. 

 A man better spend all of his time and 

 money upon a single acre, for instance, 

 then to spread them over two acres, 

 because the rent for the additional 

 acre would make a big hole in the 

 profit. But let us go out West, where 

 land is cheap; where the rent for a 

 acre is almost nominal. After a man 

 has put an acre into wheat or corn, 

 using ordinary care, there is more 

 profit for him to put in another acre 

 in the same manner, instead of putting 

 that much more labor upon the first 

 acre. It is exactly the same with bee- 

 keeping. The man with a few colonies 

 on a city lot can afford to spend con- 

 siderable time on each colony if, by 

 so doing, he can greatly increase the 

 returns. But let no one think for one 

 moment that a great amount of care 

 bestowed upon a few colonies can ever 

 make the profits equal those from a 

 large number of colonies cared for in 





